Check Out These Books!

Hi All!

Check out some of these books for your students, yourself, family, or friends!

Egg in the Hole Book

By: Richard Scarry

Egg in the Hole is a 1967 touch and feel book.Readers get the opportunity to follow along Henny’s story, a chicken who laid an egg, but then her egg rolled through a hole and Henny is trying to catch it. As she searches the farm for her precious egg, readers must guess to see where Henny’s egg lays next. Throughout the book, Henny’s egg passes through many farm animals, so readers can get a glimpse of some of the animals that live on a farm. To add that feel and touch feeling to the book, there is a cut-out hole in the book that invites readers to touch where Henny’s egg is. In luau for the egg, there is a patch of wool that represents Henny’s egg. The book is colorfully illustrated, and readers can see a line of black dots where Henny’s egg has passed through. I would recommend this book for younger audiences since it is easy to follow along and for English Language Learners. In the end, students learn about where chicks come from, and finally get to see Henny’s egg come to life.

Penguin Pete’s New Friends

By: Marcus Pfister

Penguin Pete’s New Friends is a fictional story about a penguin named Pete, whose adventures lead him to meet new friends. Pete is a young penguin who is not yet old enough to go fishing with the older penguins, so he decides he will go on his own. While taking a rest from fishing, he ends up on the back of a whale. That whale’s name is Walter Whale. Walter Whale takes Pete to a place where he can fish with him. Eventually, Walter takes Pete to an island where Pete can look around. Pete’s eyes get caught when he see a human trying to fish. Pete offers to help the boy, but then Pete gets stuck. The human boy and Pete become friends. While on the island, Pete meets other friends such as snow dogs, an elephant seal, and sea lions. After playing with his new friends, Pete returns home on the back of Walter Whales back. Pete is excited to tell his family about his adventures with his new friends- thus giving the theme of friendship. For illustrations, this book has more of a pastel color scheme, yet pictures are easy to follow along- basic illustrations that get to the point.

Leo the Lop

By: Stephen Cosgrove

Leo the Lop is the fictional story about Leo, a cute brown and white bunny who is different than the rest of the rabbits because he has floppy ears. Instead of standing up like everyone else’s ears, Leo’s ears hung straight down. His floppy ears did not Leo because he saw himself like everyone else. Over time, as they got older, the other rabbits made fun of Leo. Seeing no other option, Leo tries to change his ears. Soon he realizes that perhaps he is the normal one, and the rest of the other bunnies are different. Once hearing this, the other rabbits try to make their ears flop like Leo’s. After many failures, they realize they are perfect just the way they are. This story is a beautiful moral and lesson book for children because it makes them realize they are lovely just the way they are, and they do not need to change for anyone else. I enjoyed the illustrations in this book because they are so detailed and realistic.

Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx;

La Juez que Crecio en el Bronx

By: Jonah Winter

This book is about Supreme Court Justice Latina Judge Sonia Sotomayor and background about her life. The book describes life events that shaped Sonia Sotomayor to be the person that she is today. Readers learn about how poverty did not stop Sonia Sotomayor from working hard, reading lots of books, and graduating from the top of her class. Although being raised by a single mother in the Bronx, Sotomayor could overcome all odds. I liked the connection that could be made with first-generation students, seeing their parents work hard as much as Sonia’s mother did. What makes this book an excellent read is that it is written in both Spanish and English. This makes it accessible for students to read. I thought this book was a unique way for English Language Learners to understand the book, but also see how to read in either Spanish or English. This book also stood out to me because it gave readers hope and the idea that everyone has a story despite perhaps look very successful now. The book offers warm-toned illustrations with many minimal details in the back that somehow are popping in the pages.

Hope you can check them out! Thank you so much for following along on this blog! Happy Holidays!

Best,

Melissa